I wonder whether 2010 will be known as “the age of the celebrity meltdown.”
Singer Amy Winehouse is the latest star to fall—though, in truth, she’s had so many problems lately she didn’t have far to tumble. Ever since she stormed the Grammys in 2008, snagging five statuettes for her work on Back to Black, she’s mostly made headlines for her erratic behavior and drug and alcohol use. It’s a sad irony that Winehouse, once most famous for her infectious song “Rehab,” is now best known for her stints there.
Last month, Winehouse cancelled her European concert tour after a disastrous performance in Belgrade, Serbia, where she was barely able to stand, forgot the words to her own songs and occasionally stumbled off stage, leaving her band to gamely play on without her. The performance was eventually booed into submission, and one reviewer called the show the “worst in the history of Belgrade.”
According to foxnews.com, Winehouse had been checked into a recovery center for a week shortly before her tour in an effort to help the singer master her drinking: She reportedly drank a bottle of vodka on the drive over to the facility.
Folks like Winehouse need at least three months of in-patient care to really make a difference, according to Fox. And many experts speculate that Winehouse’s camp pushed the singer out on stage before she was ready. Writes Fox’s Jo Piazza:
… for big stars, it’s a balancing act between their well-being and their balance sheet. High-risk users like Winehouse, whose drug of choice has been crack cocaine, and [Whitney] Houston, who has also abused cocaine, are also high-return assets. They generate millions of dollars for concert promoters, management staff, backup dancers, singers and instrument players, and the rest of their large entourages. That’s why promoters often push them back into the spotlight before they’re ready—to keep the cash machine churning.
“Amy Winehouse is an extreme example, but anyone in this business can tell you we have practically propped these folks up onstage drunk as a skunk to keep a tour going,” one concert promoter told Fox411. “Time spent in recovery is lost cash.”
Even though Winehouse’s meltdown occurred more than a week ago, it gained new significance for me, in light of Bob Hoose’s June 30 blog post. He wrote about a celebrity who wasn’t even human. And while we both marvel and cringe at the technology that made that non-sentient star (Eguchi Aimi) possible, I wonder whether we sometimes forget that our celebrities are human at all.
While Plugged In doesn’t have much good to say about Winehouse’s lyrics, I’ve always appreciated her as a singer. Her bluesy delivery and retro-hip style was, back when I first heard her, unlike anything I’d ever run across. And so when I heard about Winehouse’s latest setback, I was really sad. “What a waste,” I thought to myself. I thought about all the music she could be making, but wasn’t … a monumental talent squandering her substantial gifts. Which made me, I think, as guilty in my own way as her enablers.
It wasn’t until later that I considered it’s not just her gifts she’s squandering, but her life. Here’s someone who may be, in a sense, killing herself.
We can’t know Winehouse’s situation. Not really. Only those closest to her probably know whether the singer even wants to get off the booze and get “better,” a prerequisite in any recovery program. We can’t know whether her handlers were more concerned with Winehouse the performer or Winehouse, the person, and so they pushed her on stage before she was ready.
But regardless of the circumstances, I hope that Winehouse gets her life on track. I hope that she becomes a better, stronger person. Even if she never sings another note.
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